Shibu Soren sworn in as Jharkhand CM, heads five-party coalition
Ranchi:Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Soren took oath as Chief Minister heading a five-party coalition in Jharkhand today. Sixty five-year old Soren,
who had been Chief Minister of Jharkhand twice earlier, took oath at the historic
Morabadi ground in Ranchi. Soren has been given ten days time to prove his
five-party coalition's majority on the floor of the Assembly. Earlier, a Raj Bhavan
communique said that Governor K Sankaranarayanan
has asked Soren to take a floor test by January 8. In the 81-member assembly,
Soren's coalition got the support of 44 MLAs with JMM having 18, BJP 18, JD (U)
2, AJSU 5 and Jharkhand Janadhikar Manch one. The new government is the
seventh
in Jharkhand since its creation nine years back. Popularly known as 'Guruji',
the JMM chief took to politics after battling for years moneylenders who exploited
members of his poor and largely impoverished tribal community. He was Chief
Minister
of Jharkhand state from 2008 to 2009. He was sworn in as the 6th Chief Minister
of Jharkhand on August 27, 2008 and won a trust vote on August 29 in the
Legislative
Assembly. On January 9, 2009, Soren was defeated in the by-election to the Tamar
assembly constituency to political novice Gopal Krishan Patar alias Raja Peter
of the Jharkhand Party by a margin of over 9,000 votes. Soren was earlier
reappointed
as Chief Minister of Jharkhand on August 27, 2008 after his life term in the
Shashinath
Jha murder case was set aside by the Delhi High Court in August, 2007 citing the
CBI as miserably failing in proving Soren's involvement in the crime. He was the
Minister for Coal in the Union Cabinet in November 2006, when a Delhi district
court found him guilty in the murder of his private secretary Shashi Nath Jha
in 1994. He has also been indicted in the past on other criminal charges.
